Conclusion

Working with the Orders

Notes on the Use of the Classical Orders

The Classical Orders are only the beginning elements for creating Classical Architecture, and, indeed, as you explore it more, you will see the Orders themselves are not even necessary for a building to be considered Classical. Therefore the use of the Orders is outside the scope of this book, especially since there are numerous books out there, including several written fairly recently, that do an excellent job of teaching the inquisitive the ins & outs of Classical design.

! Move the below on proportion & diminution elsewhere!!!

There are, however, three facets that I want to briefly touch on here, and they are Proportion (the relation of the height of the Column & Entablature to it’s Diameter), Diminution (the reduction in Diameter of the Column going from the bottom to the top), and Superimposition (the placement of one Order on top of another Order).

Proportion

The relationship between the Lower Diameter of a Column to it’s height (and, by extension, to the height of the Entablature), is an area where there is a great deal of difference between the various Authorities.

Some Authorities have strict heights they assign to the Orders, while others provide example heights that can be changed to suit the location and purpose of the Order (Serlio being a good example of the latter). In addition, there are many differences about the relationship between the Column height and the Entablature height (as well as how they refer to the heights of Pedestals).

The assumptions here, as stated earlier, are based on Chambers’ Treatise, but they are not the only proportions, and a careful examination of the sources of both other Authorities and existing Classical remains can provide a wide variety of options for you to choose from. As a result, if you are not satisfied with the proportions of the Orders here, there are many others that can be created following the basic instructions found here.

Intercolumniation & Superimposition

The final aspect of using the Orders is Intercolumniation (the spacing of Columns from

center to center) and Superimposition (the stacking of Columns one on top of another).

Both of these ares of Classical Architecture are beyond the scope of this book, as there are numerous differences, not only among Authorities, but as explained by Authorities themselves, since there is no one, simple formula to either issue.

The one thing I want to remark upon in relation to SketchUp is that Intercolumniation can easily be handled with SketchUp’s tools, and is an excellent reason to be careful when setting your Axes so that you can apply Intercolumniation easily.

With Superimposition, there are several ways to calculate how the upper Orders relate to the lower, the most common being to have the Upper Diameter of the lower Order set the Lower Diameter of the upper Order. However, as with Intercolumniation, it is best to check with your Authority about which methods you choose.

With regard to SketchUp, though, you should be able to use the Scale tool to resize prebuilt Components for use in existing models, or if constructing a set of orders from scratch in a new model, an alternate method could be to resize the Profiles (and other low-level Components) to match the Upper Diameter of the underlying Order before assembling the final Component.

The running Doric entablature can be constructed initially just like the Tuscan, but afterward the repeating elements will need to be placed in position.

The ‘canonical’ method usually cited is that there must be a metope between each triglyph and each metope must be equal in height and width (so must be 45 minutes square). This results in a distance of 75 minutes between each triglyph midpoint (15 min half triglyph + 45 min metope + 15 min half triglyph = 75 min). However, this is not always the case (as can be found by reading Chambers’ own notes on it in the chapter on intercolumniation in his treatise), so a reading of Chambers (or your chosen authority) is advised to help determine the spacing you are going to use for your repeating elements.